1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a vehicle roof of the sliding and/or lifting roof type used in motor vehicles that includes a frame that is set into a roof opening of a fixed roof surface, and a cover movably mounted to the frame by which the roof opening can be closed. More particularly, the cover can be moved by pressure-resistant drive cables that are driven from a drive device, wherein a drive pinion of the drive device operates on the drive cables in a zone of contact of the drive device with the pressure-resistant drive cables, and the drive cables are located in the zone of contact by guide tubes that are held on the frame by a holding device.
2. Description of Related Art
In known vehicle roofs of the type that can be actuated by a hand crank drive device or an electrical drive device, it has thus far been the practice to provide guide tubes near the middle of the front edge of the frame opening that are used for guiding pressure-resistant drive cables in the zone of contact of the drive cables with a drive pinion of the drive device. Such guide tubes are attached to the frame with the aid of a holding plate. The holding plate has recesses into which the respective ends of the guide tubes can be set, and the guide tubes are subsequently solidly connected to the holding plate, for example by soldered joints. The guide tubes do not extend into the zone of contact of the pressure-resistant drive cables and the drive pinion, but rather the drive cables are guided in this zone directly by way of a guide part that is separately connected with the holding plate so that the teeth of the drive pinion reliably mesh with and drive the pressure-resistant drive cables.
Thus, with the known devices, disadvantageously, in order to accurately match the many individual parts that must be assembled together as a result of not extending the guide tubes within the zone of contact to provide the required access to the drive cables by the drive pinion, the expense of assembly from a production engineering standpoint is greatly increased. This is because not only are both guide tubes for the drive cables set into the holding plate, but also two outlet tubes for receiving the exposed ends of the drive cables are connected to the holding plate. Thus, four tube parts must be attached to the holding plate, for example by brazing. Moreover, between the zone of contact and the guide tubes, alignment errors can occur on the holding part, so that at these transition points noise generated as a result of the roof actuation is unavoidable. Furthermore, the orientation and centering of a drive device for imparting movement to the pressure-resistant drive cables is complicated and expensive, since the drive parts and the pressure-resistant drive cables are attached at various levels. It is also optionally known to further include threaded bushings that are also required for connecting additional guide tube parts.